Vitality have announced that they have parted ways with Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, who has decided to pursue a career in Valorant and join up with his brother Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom in Liquid’s VALORANT division.

The now-former CS:GO rifler had been sitting on the bench since Vitality’s results dipped at the beginning of 2021. Even though a spot opened up in the roster after Cédric “RpK” Guipouy announced his retirement, Vitality chose to replace him with Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen instead.

Nivera was the first ever substitute in CS:GO and used to slot in for either Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier or Richard “shox” Papillon depending on the map Vitality played in a match.

Nivera

Team Vitality

The talented Belgian Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom stunned the entire Counter-Strike scene when he in October last year made an astounding entry on the French top team Vitality. With an impressive debut and a strong impact as their new sixth, Nivera elevated the team to new heights.

However, owing to Valve’s decision to punish 6-man rosters at future events made Vitality bench the otherwise promising talent in mid-March this year.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"vitality-returns-five-man-roster-nivera-steps-down","isNewTab":true}]

After two months on the bench, it seems like the future of Nivera has been settled, as the renowned French reporter neLendirekt has publicized a report, saying that the 19-year-old is leaving the CS:GO scene to join Liquid’s Valorant team.

If the transfer goes through, Nivera will join his older brother Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, who made the switch to the rival shooter last year.

You can learn more about Nivera and his impressive but still short CS:GO career here: 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"from-baby-scream-cs-go-prodigy-story-nivera","isNewTab":true}]

The star-studded Vitality side has not been up to their usual high levels so far in 2021, as the Frenchmen has lacked consistency and a steady form for the entire year. The otherwise dominant team has presented one disappointing result after another, even though possessing superstars like Richard “shox” Papillon and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.

The early exits at the prominent events of IEM Katowice ESL Pro League, seemed like that was the last straw for Vitality and the current roster. Following the disappointing showings, they announced the benching of their loyal servant Cédric "RpK" Guipouy, which paved the way for the rather unknown Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van.  

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Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam has now, in an interview with 1pv.fr, touched on the roster moves regarding the benching of RpK and Nivera and the signing of Kyojin,  and why he believed that the timing was right.

- We arrived at the conclusion that something had to change. Some people say that we should just hold out until LANs are back, but those people don’t realize how long the season is and we don’t know when LANs will be back. There are big tournaments being played in the online era and we have to respect our organization, which needs good results.

[link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/31635/xtqzzz-on-signing-kyojin-the-only-hard-and-painful-moment-was-telling-rpk-he-was-being-benched","text":"Transcribed interview by HLTV (English) "}]

Here you can see the full interview by 1pv.fr featuring XTQZZZ:

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Kyojin

If you haven’t heard of Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, you’ve probably heard of his brother – one of the most mechanically gifted players in CS:GO history – Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom.

But ScreaM’s CS:GO career faded from glory a long time ago. The headshot machine has since departed for VALORANT and flourished there.

Nivera though, was committed to Counter-Strike, and while his brother’s reputation loomed large over him, he was ready to make a splash in the world of CS. He joined the likes of ZywOo and company from Vitality and looked amazing against top-tier competition.

But just as things were looking bright for the prodigy, Valve changed the rules, and made his life a lot harder.

The Danish AWP'er did more than enough to secure himself a spot on our Pley of the Day list.

On Dust2 Astralis needed to win the 27th round to stay alive in the map. The Danes economy would have been broken with a loss, so it was essentially the last attempt for Astralis to take the map to overtime. And so they did, after this incredible play from Nicolai "device" Reedtz.

The cheeky AWP throw reminded much of both s1mple and Nivera's plays on the same bombsite in 2016 and 2020.

device

s1mple

Astralis

The roster changes haven’t been as positive as Vitality hoped, and Richard Lewis didn’t understand the roster change in the beginning.

“I think he was a better player… I think he was more impactful.”

The decision to bench Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom for Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier was a poor decision according to the experienced commentator.

Richard Lewis thinks that Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut is the best player in the world and the generation and he is concerned if his prime will be wasted by this roster.

“ZywOo is like a once-in-a-generation talent at this game, and you should lean into that.”

The commentator states that he doesn’t know how long ZywOo will tolerate the bad performances by his teammates.

ZywOo

Misutaaa

In an official statement from the Vitality organization, they announced that Nivera is stepping down from the active lineup and the team are coming back to a 5-man roster for the time being, as they “aren’t feeling confident regarding the future” for the 6-man format.

“Unfortunately, following the recent announcement, questions arose regarding the six-man format and we aren’t feeling confident regarding the future of this structure. Therefore, we are coming back to a five-man roster for the time being.”

“Nabil showed great talent and potential during his time with us and the door isn’t closed to a comeback in the future if things were to change. We stay firmly convinced that a six-man roster is the best way to help the CS:GO competitive scene grow even bigger.”

Team Vitality has had a rocky start to 2021. The French roster has lost six out of nine games in 2021 and is according to 1pv.fr looking to shake up things before ESL Pro League Season 13.

The former number 1 in the world plays their opening game Saturday against FaZe. Here the Belgian player Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom will not be part of the roster according to the website citing the main reason the change of rules from Valve, that dictates a 20% reduction of points if a team uses a substitution during an RMR (Regional Major Rankings) event.

The former coach of FaZe, Janko "YNk" Paunović commented on the rumor on Twitter, where he doubted the reasoning behind the decision. 

The six-man roster rotation from Team Vitality was a huge success at the end of 2020, where the team won IEM Beijing and BLAST Premier Fall Finals.

[link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/fr/news/101826-vitality-will-not-use-nivera-for-epl-possibly-longer","text":"You can read the report from 1pv.fr here."}]

The conversation about 6-man rosters and in-game substitutions have been a hot topic throughout the entire year. Top teams as Vitality, NAVI and Astralis have all three founded a 6-man roster this year by the signing of, Nivera, B1T and Bubzkji, which gives them the opportunity to change the active roster from map to map.

Read more. “Astralis unfolds 6-man roster – Bubzkji subs for Xyp9x”

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/astralis-unfolds-6-man-roster-bubzkji-subs-xyp9x-going-into-nuke/"}]

In a post-game interview after Astralis’ victory yesterday, Nicolai “device” Reedtz touched on the future of 6-man rosters and the impact and meaning it brings.

B1tGOD

Bubzkji

Natus Vincere

It's Grand Final day at BLAST Premier Fall Finals. Team Vitality will face either Astralis or BIG.

The French team has been solid all the tournament with ZywOo as their talisman. The young French Superstar has produced amazing numbers during the tournament averaging 1.40 in rating during 7 maps.

His teammate Nivera has also been in top form placing fourth on the list.

Best ratings at BLAST Premier Fall Finals:

electronic

Watch the play from Nivera, who wins a one on one situation by throwing his AK47 and shooting his opponent with a gun instead.

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A battle between NAVI and Vitality never seems to fail as the two biggest contenders for “The world’s best player” go head-to-head. Aleksandr “S1mple” Kostyliev has for many years been regarded as one of, if not the best player in the world. A French player by the name of Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, however, made his presence known in the Counter-Strike scene as he was crowned the best player in the world in his rookie season. 

The first map between the two rosters took place on Nuke – a map that many of the teams have grown familiar with, as Nuke was the most played map in the prior Blast Premier Fall Series 2020. This time it was NAVI to pick into Nuke. It was also the Russian roster to start the map the strongest as they managed an early 4-0 lead. Vitality, however, answered back immediately as they expanded a lead of their own. With neither of the teams giving up the half ended as close as possible with a scoreline of 8-7 in favor of the French Vitality. 

The second half was just as close as the first as both of the two teams gave it their all. “S1mple” was as impactful as always for NAVI and “ZywOo” was equally as important as both players were their team’s best-performing individual. With neither being able to close the map in 30 rounds, they headed to overtime to find a victor. A, assumingly, disappointed “S1mple” was forced to watch his team lose Nuke 15-19 to Vitality, despite him managing 33 kills in map one.

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The second map of the series was set to take place on Vitality’s map pick Dust2. This, of course, meant the substitution of “Nivera” for “misutaaa” as Dust2 is one of the two maps where Vitality opts to use the Belgium 19-year-old. The map of Dust2, however, is one of NAVI’s favorites and with a “S1mple” on fire, nothing is going to be certain in map two of the series. 

It was NAVI to start strongest as they managed to create a lead for themselves in the early stages of the map. It took an 8-1 lead in favor of NAVI before Vitality woke up and answered back. And what a beast the awoken Vitality roster was. They clawed themselves back into the game with a tremendous performance from the French roster lead by their star-player “ZywOo”. They mustered a comeback into a 14-9 lead. 

NAVI, however, didn’t give up themselves. One round at a time they refused to hand away the series without a fight. After speeding up their t-side approach NAVI managed to tie up the score at 14-14 going into the last stage of map two. Both teams won a round making it 15-15 which, of course, meant overtime once again.

Being as close as possible Vitality ultimately defeats NAVI 19-17 on Dust2 making it their second overtime victory in the series. On Dust2 the question of the better player was answered by “ZywOo” as he ends the map with 38 kills leading his team to victory and a new round in the upper bracket.

After being delayed for over two hours due to player protests the BO3-series between Mousesports and Vitality was set to begin. 

To many people’s surprise, Mousesports opted to start the battle on Inferno, instead of their main map Nuke. This, of course, meant that the 19-year-old prospect Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom was brought into the Vitality line-up. “Nivera” replaces his teammate Richard “Shox” Papillon, who usually plays the role of Vitality’s A-site anchor. 

The map started in favor of Mousesports as they won the first pistol round. Vitality, however, answered back in the following round and the two teams began to exchange rounds in a close battle. Vitality ended the first half the strongest as they lead 9-6 at halftime due to an impressive performance by the riffler “RpK” and clutch wins by “Nivera”. 

Vitality continued to assert their dominance on their t-side in the second half. Winning the second pistol-round they continued their momentum and expanded their lead to 12-6 before being answered back by Mousesports. Despite Mousesports answering back Vitality and disrupting their streak of round-wins, the relentless pressure from the French roster was, seemingly, too much for Mousesports to handle as Nivera closes out the first map at 16-7 to Vitality.

Watcht the rest of the BO3-series LIVE here: 

shox

mousesports

In an interview with HLTV, Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom talks about his role in the Vitality roster as well his upcoming future. 

The 19-year-old Nivera has had great success over the last couple of months. Whilst, being Vitality's sixth member he has outperformed most of his teammates and proved that he is Vitality's secret weapon, to be used when needed. 

Nivera is currently only being used on the maps Inferno and Dust2. Especially on Dust2, he has proven himself more than capable to perform at a very high level, wielding either a rifle or as a secondary AWP'er alongside "ZywOo". 

Nivera seems to put his team's performance as the highest priority. When asked about why he is, currently, only being used on two maps he answered: 

"I came to the conclusion that only playing a couple of maps would be a smaller workload and therefore I would be able to devote more time to making sure I was really good on them."

However, there is no doubt that the young star is looking to get more playtime in the future. When asked about his desires moving forward he emphasizes his hunger for the game:

"They know I'm hungry and that I want to play. As of now, it's just the two maps, but maybe in the future, we can add some more. Why not? It will also be dependent on team performances and stuff like that." 

Once again putting emphasis on Vitality's success as a team above his own personal success, it is clear that Nivera is a team player and shows his willingness to adapt in order to benefit his team. Whether or not we will see Nivera on more maps in the near future is uncertain. One thing is for sure, however,  the young Belgium star has everyone's attention at the moment. 

As Vitality takes on Mousesports for the opening game of Blast Premier Fall Finals, we will presumably see Nivera in action as the two first maps will be Inferno and Dust2. Watch the game LIVE at this current moment of time here: 

The full-length interview can be read here: [link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/30786/nivera-i-wanted-to-play-so-badly-when-i-was-sitting-behind-the-team-that-i-didnt-think-about-failing"}]

It's pretty rare to see brothers in competitive CS:GO. But for Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom, there has always been someone to look up to.

- I'm a fan of my brother. I am his biggest fan, Nivera tells Dexerto.com.

Nivera's brother is the legendary Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom (photo), who has been ranked as a top 20 player in the world in two different years. Earlier this year, "ScreaM" announced his retirement from CS:GO.

Now it's his younger brother's turn. And with the impressive results, that Nivera and Team Vitality has shown lately, maybe it will be "Nivera" that leaves the biggest mark in the history books of CS:GO?

Watch the rest of the interview with the Belgian player here.

Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut has been unstoppable throughout the entire event, presenting a stellar showing every time he has been on the server. It’s therefore not a surprise that the French phenomenon tops the rankings going into the Grand Final.

TOP 10 best performers IEM Beijing-Haidian:

1. ZywOo (Vitality) +78 k/d-ratio, 81.0 ADR, 1.34 rating

2. Nivera (Vitality) +25 k/d-ratio, 78.5 ADR, 1.29 rating

3. k0nfig (Complexity) +38 k/d-ratio, 90.5 ADR, 1.27 rating

4. device (Astralis) +30 k/d-ratio, 85.6 ADR, 1.26 rating

5. s1mple (NAVI) +71 k/d-ratio, 85.7 ADR, 1.25 rating

6. shox (Vitality) +44 k/d-ratio, 79.5 ADR, 1.23 rating

7. broky (FaZe) +45 k/d-ratio, 81.5 ADR, 1.23 rating

8. NiKo (G2) +40 k/d-ratio, 90.5 ADR, 1.21 rating

9. dupreeh (Astralis) +30 k/d-ratio, 81.5 ADR, 1.21 rating

10. blameF (Complexity) +24 k/d-ratio, 83.4 ADR, 1.19 rating

k0nfig

broky

NiKo

dupreeh

blameF

Vitality played some of their best CS in a long time in yesterday’s victory against Heroic, and it was therefore also a very happy apEX who spoke with the analyst desk at IEM Beijing. The French IGL praised his new teammate Nabil "⁠Nivera⁠" Benrlitom and the great impact the young player had on Inferno after sitting out on the first two maps.

“Nivera stepped up on Inferno. This guy is really talented and he’s like a small ZywOo. He’s insane and just really hungry to play more and more and today he showed up today.”

Watch the young Belgian nearly pull off an ace 24th round of Inferno.

[twitchVideo:esl_csgo/clip/BloodySillyScallionCoolStoryBob]

apEX further explains that Nivera adds some depth to the French team regarding playstyle but also their map pool due to Nivera being an immense Inferno player.

“Inferno on CT has been really hard for us for a few months because we never had this B-player that ZywOo is right now. And now when we found out that Nivera can play the AWP on A-site, it’s much easier for us to play Inferno.”

apEX

The group stage at IEM Beijing-Haidian is almost over. G2, mousesports, NiP, and BIG is left with one last chance of qualifying for the playoffs later today.

Here the usual suspects Astralis is one of the teams that await. The Danes has had an excellent start to the tournament, which can be seen on the leaderboards for the best performing players so far.

Worth mentioning is the new addition to the Vitality roster, Nivera. The Belgium player has only played two maps so far, but his transition to the French team seems to have gone very well.

stavn

Heroic

FaZe

The Frenchmen were heading into the match as big favorites, but MAD Lions made another great performance less than 24 hours after their win in the Flashpoint 2 tournament against Dignitas.

The Danes started by winning their T-side 9-6 on Nuke. But then everything fell apart for the Danes, who were wiped off the server by a sensational well playing Richard “shox” Papillon. The French Riffler finished Nuke with an incredible rating of 2.04 and 34-12 in K/D.

Team Vitality subbed off shox on the next map, Inferno. Instead, Nivera made his entrance on the server. The newest member of the French team once again showed his worth and ended as the player with the most kills on the map.

While ZywOo had one of his more quiet days, the rest of the French team showed some convincing counter-striker on Inferno. They controlled the match in general and was only succumbed when the Lions made some extraordinary plays like this defuse.

Team Vitality won Inferno by 16-8 and is now ready for the playoffs in IEM Beijing. Mad Lions can now focus 100 percent on Flashpoint 2.

MAD Lions

The acquisition of Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom has meant that Vitality now holds a six-man roster which offers a whole new dimension. The French team has during Blast Premier Fall Series demonstrated their new roster system with substitutions and rotation. Nivera were subbed in three times mid-series, making the first ever mid-game substitution in professional CS.

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Nivera who is an outstanding Dust2 player presenting an impressive all-time 1.21 rating on the iconic map. This gives Vitality a lucrative option which they took advantage from because all three times he was subbed in was exactly on Dust2.

The young is confident about his start and the progress to get him implemented into the team.

“It was at the beginning really hard, but I have become really good step by step. We are getting used to playing together”

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Nivera

Player stats

Articles mentioning Nivera

Nivera leaves CS:GO and joins Liquid Valorant

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Pley of the Day: device makes it s1mple!

Richard Lewis: You´re going to be concerned if you´re a Vitality fan.

Vitality returns to five-man roster: Nivera steps down

Media: Nivera left out of Vitality squad for EPL

device: 6-man rosters are definitely the meta

ZywOo tops the charts at BLAST Premier Fall Finals

Video: Nivera humiliate BIG with a "s1mple" move

Vitality defeat NAVI 2-0 with two overtime wins!

Vitality bests Mousesports on Inferno 16-7

Nivera: "They know i'm hungry and that i want to play"

Vitality-rookie has big shoes to fill

Who has been the BEST performers at IEM Beijing-Haidian?

apEX: He’s like a small ZywOo

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Vitality overcame difficult start against MAD Lions

Belgian talent makes an impressive debut

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